CD Projekt Red Explains Why The Witcher 3 Will Be Next-Gen Only

With the next generation of consoles arriving in just a few months, publishers are in a precarious position. Major titles are on the way, and many coming from third-parties will arrive on old and new hardware. That won’t be the case for CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 3 according to an Edge interview published today.

Co-founder and joint CEO Marcin Iwinski told Edge that there is, “no way that [The Witcher 3] would run on curren-gen.” Iwinski also stated his belief that multi-generation development (as is happening with Bungie’s Destiny, along with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Watch Dogs) creates a conundrum for developers and publishers.

It’s likely that compromises will be made for current-generation hardware beyond visual fidelity. We already know that the PlayStation 4 is significantly more powerful than the PlayStation 3, which will likely have gameplay implications. Additionally, developing for the x86-based PS4 won’t be easily scalable to the Cell processor-based PS3 (or, worse, vice versa). However, reach is important to large publishers. Making sure key holiday titles are available for those that aren’t yet able to acquire new hardware is crucial for meeting revenue projections.